Federalist No. 9

Federalist No. 9

Alexander Hamilton, author of Federalist No. 9
Author	Alexander Hamilton
Original title	The Union as a Safeguard Against Domestic Faction and Insurrection
Country	United States
Language	English
Series	The Federalist
Publisher	The Independent Journal
Publication date	November 21, 1787
Media type	Newspaper
Preceded by	Federalist No. 8
Followed by	Federalist No. 10
Text	Federalist No. 9 at Wikisource

Federalist No. 9, titled "The Union as a Safeguard Against Domestic Faction and Insurrection", is a political essay by Alexander Hamilton and the eighth of The Federalist Papers. It was first published in the Daily Advertiser and the Independent Journal on November 21, 1787, under the pseudonym Publius, the name under which all The Federalist Papers were published. It expressed ideas that became the foundation of Federalist No. 10, the most influential of The Federalist Papers.

Federalist No. 9 was a rebuttal to an anti-federalist argument that a republic as large as the United States would be unsustainable. The argument was based on a similar premise by the political philosopher Montesquieu. Hamilton responded by quoting Montesquieu, presenting the argument that a larger republic could exist as a confederation of states like the one proposed in the constitution. Hamilton distinguished a potential American republic from the failed republics of ancient Greece and Italy, arguing insurrection from one state would be kept in check by the others, preventing tyranny from consuming the entire nation.